Sandra Faire’s credentials as a Canadian talent spotter are legendary.

‘She’s got this uncanny knack for seeing the star quality in someone before anyone else, and believing in building a star system in Canada well before most people did,’ explains Faire’s longtime SFA Productions partner Trisa Dayot.

Long the queen of the one-off music specials on the CBC, the veteran variety producer has in recent years turned to spotting potential comic talent for comedy series airing at home and abroad.

Faire, nominated this year for a Gemini for best comedy program or series for Women of the Night, insists Canada has a rich supply of comic talent that she’s as keen to propel into the spotlight today as she was with music talent at the CBC.

The migration from music to comedy, and one-off specials to series programming, was prompted by Faire leaving the CBC five years ago to open SFA, her own prodco.

Producing expensive music specials was fine, she explains, as long as the CBC underwrote the steep production costs, but far less lucrative if Faire was expected to swallow the cost of paying for a musical host, four or five guests and the rights to their music and lyrics.

‘Today, the artists and recording companies own the rights. So you really don’t have a product that you can own,’ Faire says.

So following on the success of the Comics series, produced by Faire at the CBC, SFA has found success at The Comedy Network in Canada and Comedy Central in the U.S. with their Comedy Now series, in which the one-hour Women of the Night special was showcased.

Homegrown comedy programming, Faire adds, is far easier to sell abroad than Canadian-originated music programming, given the doors opened worldwide by the superstar status of Canuck comic talent like Jim Carrey, Mike Myers and Michael J. Fox.

The Women of the Night one-hour featured women stand-up comics from Aurora Browne and Kate Rigg to Joanna Downey and Seana Sperling, and was hosted by Brigitte Gall.

The Jessica Holmes Show, set to launch on CTV, represents SFA’s latest foray into comedy series programming.

Dayot, chief operating officer at SFA, says she and Faire are looking for comic talent that tickle their funny bone.

‘The number-one thing about looking at a tape or watching a performer on stage is ‘does he or she make us laugh?” she explains.

They are also looking for performers with a unique voice and a quirky take on life that can hold a TV audience.

Once found, Faire and Dayot can go about managing a comedian’s dream of TV fame, judging whether their act will come across with a living room audience or whether a comic needs another year or two to hone their jokes and performance skills.

A Gemini for the Women of the Night show would prove especially gratifying for Faire because, as she tells it, stand-up comedy is a harder road for women than their male rivals.

‘Audiences tend to accept more from a man than a woman,’ Faire argues.

But just as the CBC and then MuchMusic proved a launching pad for Canadian female music artists like Alanis Morrissette and Celine Dion, Faire is eager to kick start the careers of aspiring Canadian female comics into overdrive on Comedy and CTV.

‘We went through Wayne and Shuster, the SCTV days, Kids in the Hall and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Now there’s a whole bunch of comics on the Canadian comedy scene that will be around for years to come,’ Faire says.